--- Linus Torvalds <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > And dammit, it just would look _cool_ if a window > rotated away into the > distance when you close them. > ..... > Richer experience, leaving the "old flat look" > looking very dated indeed. > > So don't dismiss it. Rich interfaces can > potentially make people come up > with some truly useful approaches.
Looking dated is going to be a very real problem for Linux given where MS and the Mac are going with 3D. Fully enabling 3D in X is going to take several years of work. Propagating 3D up into desktop apps is going to take even longer. Waiting for Longhorn to ship before starting means at least two years of looking dated right when Linux is likely to start making inroads to the desktop market. If 3D isn't important to a desktop, then why are my windows stacked on top of each other? Why do my buttons depress and my windows look like they have raised borders? Edit boxes have shadows and menus look like they raise when the mouse if over them. Right now we are going through a lot of effort to simulate 3D. These effects could be coded more easily by simply using a 3D API. Why do future windows have to be flat? Why can't an app project a 3D dimensional surface into the desktop. Windows are flat right now because that's the way 2D clipping hardware works. Some apps are best flat but others aren't. With 3D the system tray could be a box that I rotate to look into. Or with hardware lighting, the highlights on widgets could track the mouse as a light source. Long ago I loved the command line. I was an expert at it. When Window 1.0 came out I got my first exposure to a mouse. For about a year I wouldn't get one, but now I can't live without it. ===== Jon Smirl [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek Welcome to geek heaven. http://thinkgeek.com/sf _______________________________________________ Dri-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dri-devel
